Month: December 2016

The view from where we ate at Buzzards Roost.
Well usually. Generally we sit waterside with this great view of the marina but it was Sunday brunch time and so busy we couldn’t see it from our table.

HOWEVER I did get up and take a this photo of it. It’s so lovely a picture does not do it justice.

The tropical breezes when fleeing south are always a treat.

I did draw the pelicans which I had not seen in all my previous trips to Buzzards Roost. The pelicans were actually lined up when I drew them but I turned one around. Thought three in a line would be boring.

Hard to see but the pelicans are lined up on the boat rails.

Colors used marine blue, ultramarine blue, indigo, cerulean, Winsor yellow, purple. I seem to use a lot of purple as a dark lately.

Some white gouache because I forgot to leave their reflection in the water. A lot of splattering with soupy ultramarine blue and indigo.

As I have said before we start and end our trip thru the Keys at Buzzards Roost. After a 14 hour drive from Atlanta it was dark when we got there this trip. The restaurant sits in the middle of a marina on a canal in Key Largo. This was the view from our table complete with Christmas lights.

Only had 125 miles left to go of Overseas Highway including the seven mile bridge left. Hate doing it at night because the views of the blue green water are spectacular in the day time.

Colors used : quin gold. Seems to be my fav color lately. Under the palms and the lights and on the boats.

Purple and indigo for darks. Cerulean blue and quin burnt orange for greys on the boats. And a bit of burnt umber and ultramarine blue. And white gouache for the Christmas lights.

I am working on a hand bound memory journal book for my grandkids. This is page three. They are painted on sheets of 8×10″ 280# arches. Sooner or later I hope to bind them into a book.
The tree is their tree and the toys their two favorites Santa brought. Of course those are their stockings that I knitted for each of them the year they were born.
Colors -Ted Nuttalls transparent colors plus cerulean. The two colors I can paint without are Daniel Smith Quin gold and cerulean. Well there are a few others but use those a lot.
I did a base coat on the tree of quin gold before painting it with greens. It alway shows as a nice glow.

Lettering is done with a small 6 Isabey sable brush which has a wonderful point.

Busy day. Off to binders to buy more quin gold And cerulean.
Ttyl
Margaret not looking forward to Atlanta traffic but hearing the call of her Binders gift card aka spend spend spend.

LLoyd of Lloyds Tropical Bike Tour with his herd of ibis
When we ride Lloyds Tropical bike tour the highlight for me is always the Key West Wildlife Rescue where he calls the ibis.

I love drawing them as much as I love drawing the chickens. No Key West sketchbook is complete without the ibis and the chickens.

These ibis were very intent on Lloyd who had been feeding them. Hoping for more food they follow him like trained dogs.

Trying to decide whether or not to go back and splatter the brush. Mostly painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent colors in my Stillman and Birn Zeta.

I laid down a light wash of Daniel Smith Quin gold adding burnt umber and ultramarine blue in the dark areas and quin burnt orange in the light areas. The water is Daniel Smith hematite green and Marine blue with bits of ultramarine blue. The legs and beaks are pyrrole red and aureolin yellow.

I don’t think I have published this page from the Key West sketchbook. THE Buzzard at Buzzards Roost hides in the beautiful flowered hedges which I have forgotten the name of. Here’s what he looked like as I drew him but I pulled the bush back so I could photograph him. A lot of peeking around the bushes went on while I quickly sketched him.

Here’s the flower on the bush. I actually drew our view too but yet to paint it. What to do with those lights?! Eeek.

Our view to the left.

Ttyl

Back to Call the Midwives Christmas show. Pass the Kleenex!

Margaret xoxoxo also doing battle with a programmable thermostat. Tired of being chilly on this rainy foggy day.

This is the original sock pattern that my mom knitted all our socks from when we were kids. Nobody knows where it came from or who copied it it’s been around so long. Knowing my mom it was some freebee you got when you bought yarn from Columbia Minerva yarn corporation.

Santa too hard. Substitute something like a snowman or a train. Both much easier to knit.

This stocking is knitted from pattern. It’s easy to choose a simple crossstitch pattern and add it to the sock instead of the very complicated Santa.

My dad knitted this one for his mom in 1970 or so. Instead of knitting in the letters he actually whip stitched them on. A quirky fun effect. Now it’s my stocking.

Knit them from wool and they will last a long time.

Merry Christmas. Get those needles clicking so you will have them done for next year.

The Abbey Road Snack Shack at the Hyatt Windward. In case you are wondering why it’s called Abbey Road the Beatles actually stayed here during Hurricane Dora. Originally this was their two cottages on the Key Wester Hotel grounds.

They played pool here. So when the Hyatt built they preserved these cottages combining them into one.

It’s now used as a pool house and a place to eat meals or get drinks and of course a Beatle souvenir or two.

If you look carefully you can see ibis which kept walking through my drawing and an iguana which skittered everywhere.

Here they are in the same door that I drew.
Another shot of the Fab Four.

Ttyl

Margaret who actually lost two pounds while she was eating her way thru Key West. Xoxoxo